![]() ![]() Sounds simple, right? Well, it basically is! Where it gets more complicated is in the specifics of the cards themselves, how they function, and how they interact with each other. Getting your opponent's life total to zero isn't the only way to win, but it's the most common. ![]() The first player to get their opponent's life total to zero wins the game. After rolling a die to see who goes first, players then take turns, drawing one card from their deck at the start of each of their turns. In a typical 1v1 game of Magic, each player starts at 20 life with seven cards in hand, drawn from their respective decks (there are exceptions, which we'll get to in the "Formats" section). Understanding the basics is all you need to get started the rest comes naturally with time and practice. But don't think you need to know every single corner case and minutia before playing your first game. The official comprehensive rulebook for the game is almost 300 pages long, after all! Needless to say, what follows is not an exhaustive explanation. ![]() Learning the rules of Magic: The Gathering is the part of the process that all too often scares new players away. Luckily, you don't need to know anything about the story to start playing, so the amount you chose to engage with that side of the game is entirely up to you. Or, if you're the type to get deep into lore, you can check out the regularly released, free-to-read story content published by Wizards of the Coast. You can piece together what's going on just by looking at the art and reading "flavor text" (short, italicized story blurbs you'll find printed on some cards). Whenever a new major set of cards is released (which happens about four times a year), the story is expanded upon, with the backdrop of whatever particular plane that set takes place in. It follows a handful of recurring Planeswalker characters as they traverse the many worlds of the Multiverse-fighting wars, saving civilizations, making and breaking allegiances. The art and flavor text on Magic cards often add to or help explain what's going on with the lore.Īs for the story, it's been being continuously written for the past 30 years, so the lore is incredibly deep and complicated by this point. And like chess, there are near-infinite different ways any given game can play out, so thinking a few turns ahead, and having a plan for how to take down your opponent, are both crucial skills. Like poker, variance and hidden information are both central to the game, so some knowledge of statistics, bluffing, and concepts like "expected value" is key to success. The gameplay and strategy of Magic are frequently described as a combination of poker and chess. There may be plenty of elves, dragons, and sorcery at play, but where D&D is all about imagination and teamwork, Magic is a cutthroat, competitive card game through and through. Dragons have been a regular creature type in Magic since the beginning.Ĭontrary to popular belief, Magic is not a tabletop RPG like Dungeons & Dragons (though both games are owned by Wizards of the Coast). To defeat your opponent, a fellow Planeswalker, you must cast spells and summon creatures powerful enough to outmatch theirs. In Magic, you take on the role of a "Planeswalker"-a powerful mage, capable of traversing the many "planes," or dimensions, of the Multiverse (the fictional universe where the Magic story takes place). Without Magic, the Hearthstones, Pokemons, and Yu-Gi-Ohs! of the world would look a whole lot different, and might not exist at all. The concept-cards of varying rarities, randomly assorted in "booster packs," that can be played with in near-limitless combinations- was revolutionary at the time. When Magic: The Gathering, created by game designer Richard Garfield, was first unveiled at Gen Con in '93, it was an immediate success. With a string of well-received new card sets, the post-COVID return of high-level competitive play, and the release of an incredibly user-friendly new digital client, there has never been a better time to get into MTG. And it's not just still around on the fringes of society it has boomed in popularity in recent years. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the original trading card game. Magic: The Gathering is an example of such a game. However, a select few-games like Tetris, Scrabble, and Chess-are so pure and perfected in the fundamentals of their gameplay that they're essentially timeless in their appeal, and have maintained their popularity over the years as a result. Even the most innovative games' popularity will generally dwindle over time, as newer releases build on their predecessors' successes to bring a better, fresher experience to the table. As technology evolves and the scope of knowledge in the world grows, so too do our expectations. It's not easy for a game to stand the test of time. ![]()
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